People give emotional answers because this is an emotional issue. We're not machines programmed to only deal with mathmatical equations, there is empathy & sympathy involved. These aren't junk cars we're discussing.

Cattle spend much of their lives together, often in close quarters, & ran through chutes for various reasons. Horses don't do well in tight areas with those they don't know. I don't need to tell horse people how horses react to strange situations.

Horses brains are farther back in their skulls compared to cattle which makes the captive bolt tricky, especially with a horse's longer flexible neck.

Unlike stray dogs, cats & wild mustangs most conceptions are due to man's actions. I'm not saying no one should breed but maybe we should look at what we are breeding & why. Good horses with good breeding & training are still in demand. I looked for over 3 years for my mare & I paid over 'market price' for her. I will not breed her.

Horses have been going to slaughter for a long time, so although the economy is bad it cannot take the full blame for the glut of horses.
Horses in the slaughter chain now can't be saved except for a few isolated cases but if every breeder or buyer said, "Not my horse' there would be no slaughter.

Here are my reasons for being anti-slaughter, yes, some are emotional but aren't most of our life decisions based on emotions?
We don't eat horses here.
Bullets are cheap.
There is nothing humane about the way horses are kept, transported or slaughtered.
I don't need the few dollars I would get for sending a horse off.
The horse's plight doesn't end when it leaves our property. For me, out of sight isn't out of mind.
Horses have given me so much that the least I can do is offer them as peaceful a passing as possible.
I have to live with the decisions I make & I feel it is my responsibility to be with my horses to the end. I take comfort in knowing where they are & how they got there.
If this makes me a bleeding heart then that is a badge I will proudly wear.

Once upon a time, back while I was dating DH, I went with a friend to go look at cars. His mom was buying him one...so I wanted one too. DH told me not to touch the used car lot, his dad was a master mechanic and had access to good deals on good cars and wouldn't rip me off....So what did I do? Got obstinate and thought "no one tells me what to do!"
So I buy this car, right? Spur of the moment impulse buy...I think I paid an extra 10 thousand dollars in interest...because of my emotional response. Moral of the story is (though the story is unrelated to animals this time...though I have a few...which are related. X_X), that emotion isn't always the best way to go...

Now...I would not send my horse to slaughter. I would find a way to make it work even if something bad happened to my family. This is who I am...but I can also understand...that a family somewhere in the world might love their horse...but still eat his meat after he becomes unable to work anymore. I can also understand that like dogs, some horses are downright dangerous due to something going wrong in their little monkey brains....for those, and for the glut of horses, I can understand that by killing them and consuming their life energy...they can do some good in this world.
Hell, maybe their meat goes to the zoos everyone likes to go to...or big cat conservation. Or as someone else said...dog food...it doesn't have to be people that eat them.

My point is, better ways can be found, and surely will be found with so many judging eyes on the situation, which is GOOD. If you want the problem to stop...go slap your neighbor who is breeding yearly....

Once upon a time, back while I was dating DH, I went with a friend to go look at cars. His mom was buying him one...so I wanted one too. DH told me not to touch the used car lot, his dad was a master mechanic and had access to good deals on good cars and wouldn't rip me off....So what did I do? Got obstinate and thought "no one tells me what to do!"
So I buy this car, right? Spur of the moment impulse buy...I think I paid an extra 10 thousand dollars in interest...because of my emotional response. Moral of the story is (though the story is unrelated to animals this time...though I have a few...which are related. X_X), that emotion isn't always the best way to go...

Now...I would not send my horse to slaughter. I would find a way to make it work even if something bad happened to my family. This is who I am...but I can also understand...that a family somewhere in the world might love their horse...but still eat his meat after he becomes unable to work anymore. I can also understand that like dogs, some horses are downright dangerous due to something going wrong in their little monkey brains....for those, and for the glut of horses, I can understand that by killing them and consuming their life energy...they can do some good in this world.
Hell, maybe their meat goes to the zoos everyone likes to go to...or big cat conservation. Or as someone else said...dog food...it doesn't have to be people that eat them.

My point is, better ways can be found, and surely will be found with so many judging eyes on the situation, which is GOOD. If you want the problem to stop...go slap your neighbor who is breeding yearly....

Sorry about your car but I'll bet it was pretty.

I have no problem with what happens after something is already dead, it's how it gets there. Hell, when I die they can feed me to the lions at a zoo, I'm sure much to the delight of on looking children.

I have no problem with what happens after something is already dead, it's how it gets there. Hell, when I die they can feed me to the lions at a zoo, I'm sure much to the delight of on looking children.

Lol it was pretty, and I enjoyed it...two months after I finally paid it off....DH totaled it. =/ ROFL

As for that...yes, I agree that the death should be as humane as possible, and if current methods can be improved upon, then we as human beings have a MORAL RESPONSIBILITY to inflict as little harm as possible.

That being said...the excess breeding of ALL domestic animals needs to stop!!! Having thirty ill conformed, bred horses going through auction (as per one thread I read) is irresponsible and downright abominable!!!! Having pet cats then hoping to find homes for six kittens every six months, knowing that cats breed exponentially...is horrible! And by it's very nature inflicts suffering that we could prevent easily. If people were more responsible, or if there were more SOCIAL REPERCUSSIONS for being a d*%chebag, then maybe we'd have less horses to slaughter, less animal cruelty cases...and less piles of dogs and cats going through the kill shelters daily.....

Oh for God's sakes!!! I just wanted to know how many people on this site were for and how many were against slaughtering horses. To all of the pro slaughter postsers, no one on this thread has berrated you, or ganged up on you, or insulted you for your opinion. I think all the same posters say the same thing over and over and over again. I bet if you count the number of the posters on the slaughter threads the pro's will far out number the anti's, and it will be the same dozen or so. I'm sure someone with alot more time and anger will count them to prove me wrong.
I did not read all the posts, as I have read them all before on other threads. Please, If you want to argue, be hurtfull, intimidating, insulting, or personal, again please do it on a slaughter thread.
I would truly like to know the #'s without any poster being attacked for their opinion.
I was hoping this would be a poll, not a debate, there are plenty of other threads for that already.

I've been gone for several hours and I come back and THERE STILL IS NOT ONE ANSWER TO MY QUESTIONS. Could it be that all of the idealists have not figured out an answer?

Here's a hint -- unless 'you' and your friends are going to attend every sale and bid on and buy every unwanted horse (One that no one else bids on), there is no other place for them to go.

If you want to do something constructive, why don't you study how horses are handled and slaughtered in places like Iceland where they are raised for meat? I have read quite a bit about their process there and it is quite acceptable.

Find out what the European Union rules and regulations are. They are quite particular in what methods are acceptable if the meat is going to be sold in the EU countries.

Instead of railing about the problems and wishing for unrealistic solutions, why don't you be part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Stopping horse slaughter here has only multiplied the problems for the poor horses caught in the middle. Dropping horses' value has been a disaster for both horses and horse owners and everyone from Vets to farriers to trainers that have made their living with horses for their entire lives are suffering.

When horses have a value (like the $1000.00 killer prices of 10 years ago, they were better cared for, kept fat and there were a lot fewer of them being sent off to the slaughter plants. They were 'worth' keeping and training.

If you have so much time to kill, (no pun intended), and this means so much to you, why don't you spend your time and effort trying to see what methods work best. A lady that lives in Iceland (whose husband works in a horse slaughter house there) has explained quite a bit about their process there. She said all of the horses stand quietly, don't fight or act afraid and quietly walk into the plant. If people would put the same time and effort into making plants more 'horse friendly' and and the process more humane, the horses that are inevitably going to end up in one of them would benefit more than anything else you could do for them.
Until then, I am still waiting for your solutions to what you would do with the horses right now that are being shipped to Mexico and Canada?

Oh, for whoever said only sick and tainted horses go to Mexico -- come to the next Monday night horse sale here in town -- 10 days from now.

I did not see one sick or diseased horse go through the ring. If they did, only the zoo buyer would take them. The 2 or 3 healthy grays went to the buyer for zoo meat. The killer buyers will not even buy them.

Many were old broodmares that checked 'open', were untrained or half wild or mean horses that are no longer wanted as 'project horses'. There were 3 or 4 horses that obviously had been foundered at one time. Most had not been dewormed in a very long time -- if ever. Quite a few were old, sway-backed and looked pretty tough. There was one horse with shoes and I think they were race plates. So, out of 60 or 70 horses that went to Mexico, one may have had Bute or other medication in it. The broodmares had probably been dewormed at some time, but no one would have 'wasted' dewormer on them recently. I doubt that the others had received any doctoring or medication in their lifetimes or at least their recent lifetimes. Most of what you see are neglected horses that have received no care at all for months or years. People have quit 'wasting' money on them for a very long time because they are not 'worth' it.

Horses losing their value is behind almost all of the neglect and starvation cases.

I read the first or maybe the second sentence of post #149. Thats it. I don't know who you are talking to "you and your friends" I don't have friends here.
Thats all I wanted to read, read it all before. I just was hoping for a poll.
I guess that won't happen though.

This is a 'forum' -- not a voting booth. Everything posted here is up for discussion. That is what this is.

I never call people names or get personal. I respect everyone even if I disagree with them.

Am I passionate about this subject -- YOU BET! In the past five years since the first restrictions were put on slaughter, I have seen more starved and neglected horse than I did for the first 50 years I was around them. I have watched their care go swiftly down hill. So, yes, I am passionate about what the stopping of domestic slaughter has done to the poor horses caught in the middle of this debate.

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